Patent Procurement Clinic

About the clinic

The Patent Procurement Clinic is a legal partnership between Wayne Law and Brooks Kushman that offers students training in practical lawyering skills while providing entrepreneurs and future business owners invaluable services to help them protect their intellectual property.

For students

Patent law students who want to improve their skills in drafting patent applications, interacting with clients and prosecuting patents will be interested in this clinic.

Each student will perform a patentability search, draft a patent application for a real client under the guidance of an experienced patent attorney and perform patent prosecution tasks, such as responding to "office actions."

First-time clinic participants must take the clinic as a four-credit course; those who have taken the clinic for credit can continue on either a credit or volunteer non-credit basis. Students in their second semester will develop special projects with the professor; those working on a volunteer non-credit basis can have their hours counted for the Student Voluntary Pro Bono Program.

For clients

As part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Clinic Certification Program, Wayne Law's Patent Procurement Clinic continues the Law School's traditional leadership in intellectual property law. The clinic is one of about 45 participating clinics in the country.

The clinic offers important patent services, including:

Patentability searches

Patent application drafting

Responses to patent office rejections

All patent services are provided by upper-level Law School students with degrees in engineering or science (e.g. mechanical engineering or chemistry) supervised by David Berry, who is of counsel with Brooks Kushman and has 15 years of experience as a practicing intellectual property attorney and more than 12 years of teaching experience.

The clinic's legal services are provided free of charge; however, clients are responsible for any and all filing fees. Clinic services are limited to inventors living in the state of Michigan.

Application information

The Patent Procurement Clinic is now accepting patent client applications from inventors seeking pro bono legal assistance with their patent matters. Applications can be filled out here.